Great article, thanks sotiris! I like how he just talks about Sunflower, who animated her, the production documents talking about her scenes. Thankfully, it wasn't one of those "Disney is evil for censoring their history, blah blah blah" rants. It addressed those concerns, but did so without being too biased towards either side.

The whole 'Sunflower' topic has been blown out of proportion for years, and has been done so not because the appearance of an extra few seconds of animation will immediately improve the film (that is, regardless, already a masterpiece), but simply for anarchy. It's making a fuss for the sake of making a fuss.

Censorship edits have been made countless times over the years, and for the most part no-one kicks up a problem. The problem only exists when a company as large as Disney, who focus on quality, are immediately 'found out' to be hiding something, and thus a chain reaction of childish comments appear - even going as far as plaguing sites like Amazon with 1-Star reviews because of these edits. If the individual in question isn't mature enough to take the situation with arguments on both sides, then clearly clearly it is only the immature that make a big deal in the first place.

Sure, its ignorant to try and forget that state of society from years gone by, but the edits exist purely because the modern Disney corporation wants to protect the image of "Uncle Walt" - that lovely chap who in his later years was never far away from a photographer and some happy kids. Disney don't want racial imagery in their films because it would literally crush this fake sense of magic. As every "Making of..." Documentary demonstrates, Walt was a flawless genius who probably never farted in public.

If anyone is interested in the Sunflower edits, then just research the topic. I've acquired many publicity photographs from ebay, and on a couple you can see the original Sunflower cels in the painting department.

If anyone's interested, there's two new(ish) torrents posted on Mousebits. One is of the CD release of the 1982 re-recording and the other is of Deems Taylor's actual narration from the edited down version. Just in case anyone wanted to do some fun video editing.

Ok, so Im listening to the Irwin Kostal 1982 recordings.... at times I feel they are better than the originals (bigger orchestra, fuller sound), but at times, he doesnt hit the marks the way Stokowski (sp?) did.

But either way... I would never dare say that Disney should replace the original recording. But why the hell didnt they include both tracks on the new dvds/blu rays???? it costs them NOTHING to do it...its all already recorded!

Ok... just had an eye opening experience regarding the Irwin Kostal recording.

I found the soundtrack for it on youtube, and I downloaded several of the sections. While listening to the third movement of the pastoral symphony (bacchanal), I noticed an odd transition on the soundtrack.

So I popped my dvd into the computer, and synched the Kostal recording to the dvd image. And then I noticed the odd jump in the soundtrack: its the shot where the carpet is being unrolled by Sunflower. In the current dvd, she has been digitally removed, but I assume that back in 1982, when Kostal recorded his version, they just cut the entire shot of the carpet unrolling.

Now, whether Kostal recorded the entire piece and then the section was cut, or did his orchestrations jump over this section intentionally, I don't know. But it sure is interesting! (and a plausible reason why Disney might not have included his version of the soundtrack.... it wouldnt fit!)

Yeah, Irwin Kostal's recording is great but it wouldn't fit. Not just because of the jumps in the track from editing out Sunflower but mostly because the Kostal soundtrack wasn't synced with the Roadshow edit of the movie, which is the only version they release anymore.

I personally would love it if they'd re-recorded the score to the movie exactly how Stokowski arranged it and included it as an alternative track, like they currently do with the original mono and the DEHT tracks. I'd also like to hear Deems Taylor's voice again but unfortunately YouTube and the opening to Fantasia 2000 are the only place we can anymore.

Sorry for resurrecting this topic but I found a video that intercuts Deems Taylor's narration and Corey Burton's. As you can see (well...hear), Corey Burton doesn't sound anything at all like Deems Taylor, it's really distracting.

I guarantee you Disney could put a contest on YouTube and within two weeks they'd have someone who can do a perfect imitation. As it stands, I'm not a fan of Corey Burton's narration, as it just doesn't sound like it's coming from the person we see on screen.

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